Whoever President Trump picks as his Secretary of State -- On January 21st, 2017 an official envoy of the United States of the America should touch down in Tehran, Iran scheduled to meet with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani who earlier this week said "Do you think that he [President Trump] can rip up the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal)? Do you think we and our nation will let him do that?" Once this envoy is escorted to meet President Rouhani, the envoy should walk into that meeting with two envelopes, the first one will be the JCPOA...

Afghan Senate members have certified the existence of documents affirming that Taliban collected endorsements from both Iran and Russia. Indeed, Taliban members are located in the cities of Mashhad, Yazd and Kerman in Iran. They often travel to and fro between the two countries, according to locals at the border of Afghanistan. The Iranian Foreign Ministry denied these reports. A number of deputies of the Council of elders of Afghanistan, advocated that: “Moscow supplied the Taliban with ammunition in order to restrain the widening influence of ISIS and its affiliated groups in Afghanistan and preclude threats against the Central Asian...

War On Terror: The head of U.S. Southern Command has warned lawmakers that IS is radicalizing converts and other Muslims in Latin America and could train and send them north via human traffickers. Gen. John Kelly issued his warning in a hearing Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee on defense appropriations for fiscal 2016. He's concerned that in addition to the Iranian terrorist puppet Hezbollah being active in Latin America, the Islamic State is promoting and recruiting for jihad against the United States in the region. "Last year, IS adherents posted discussions on social media calling for the infiltration...

Saudi journalist banned from media after criticising Trump Jamal Khashoggi’s weekly column in Al Hayat newspaper was not published this week, after appearing every Saturday for almost 5 years Saudi authorities banned journalist Jamal Khashoggi from writing in newspapers, appearing on TV and attending conferences, the Alkhalij Aljadid reported in Arabic. This came after Khashoggi’s remarks during a presentation he made at a Washington think-tank on 10 November in which he was critical of Donald Trump’s ascension to the US presidency. Two weeks ago, an official Saudi source was cited by the Saudi News Agency as saying that Khashoggi did...

The State Department on Tuesday acknowledged President-elect Donald Trump can exit President Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran. “It’s not a formal treaty, and, of course, no one else can prevent any party to this agreement from walking away,” spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Tuesday, according to The Washington Examiner. "The counterargument is, why would anyone walk away? Because it’s effective.” ---------------------------------------------snip------------------------------------ Iranian President Hassan Rouhani earlier Tuesday slammed Trump for threatening to abolish the landmark 2015 deal. “[Trump] wants to do many things, but none of his actions would affect us,” he said during a speech at the University of...

During a press conference last month with German leader Angela Merkel in Berlin, President Barack Obama provided us with a "Jesse Jackson moment." For those who have forgotten, in 1998, as the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal reared its ugly head, Reverend Jesse Jackson offered President Bill Clinton his services as a spiritual advisor. It would turn out the offer represented the height of hypocrisy by the right good -- and married -- reverend. It was later learned, Jackson provided his services while quietly living under the cloud of having fathered an illegitimate child months earlier. Apparently the lure of moving...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry argued on Monday that the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers last year had made the world – including Israel – safer. Kerry rejected President-elect Donald Trump's references to the agreement as a "disaster" and "the worst deal ever negotiated". "The region is safer, Germany and the United States are safer, Europe is safer, Israel is safer and the world is safer... It depends on all of us to keep this alive," he said at an event at which he was awarded the German Order of Merit, according to Reuters. The Secretary of...

“There will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world – I want to make that clear to all of you,” Kerry lectured, “without the Palestinian process and without Palestinian peace.” Perhaps the esteemed diplomat forgot that Israel already signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, two moderate Arab countries that enjoy normalized relations with the Jewish state despite the absence of an Israeli-Palestinian deal. And Kerry may have missed that under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there have been numerous reports of security cooperation between Israel and Sunni Arab states like Saudi Arabia that are deeply concerned by...

BEIJING — Implementation of the Iran nuclear deal should not be “affected by any changes in the domestic situations” of countries involved, China’s foreign minister warned Monday, responding to US president-elect Donald Trump’s threats to abandon it. The agreement, signed in Vienna in July 2015 and in force since January 2016, was the signature diplomatic breakthrough of Barack Obama’s second term. It calls on Tehran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief from the US and other nations. Trump has promised to tear up the nuclear deal once in office, calling the agreement under which it was...

The foreign ministers of China and Iran on Monday urged governments not to violate the deal that limits Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, in remarks apparently directed at President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said during a visit to Beijing that the seven nations who agreed to the deal in July 2015 “have the obligation to fully implement” it. “Iran will not allow any country to take unilateral action to violate the agreement and Iran has the right to take action against that,” Zarif said at a news conference after...

<p>In the aftermath of the Raymond Davis and bin Laden affairs, General James Mattis was key in maintaining ties with top Pakistani military leadership.</p>
<p>New Delhi: The next US secretary of defence was the Obama administration's main man to keep a line open and bring ties with the top Pakistani military leadership back on an even keel in the dark days following the arrest of a CIA contractor and the killing of Osama bin Laden.</p>

Iran is threatening to walk away from the nuclear deal with the United States and pursue forms of retaliation, including a national boycott of American goods, as a result of Congress’s overwhelming vote on Thursday to level new sanctions against Iran for another 10 years, according to multiple comments by senior Iranian officials. ... Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani hotly criticized the United States during Iran’s weekly national Friday prayer service, urging the country’s leaders to retaliate against America. “Nothing but hostility is expected from the U.S., but as said before, now it’s time for retaliation,” the cleric was quoted...

Congress unanimously voted on Thursday to level new sanctions on Iran, sending a clear message that lawmakers stand opposed to the Obama administration’s continued concessions to Tehran in the final months before it leaves office, according to comments provided to the Washington Free Beacon. The Obama administration, including Secretary of State John Kerry, made a final push in recent weeks to convince lawmakers to abandon the new sanctions, but lawmakers remained firm on Thursday, voting 99-0 to approve the new sanctions. Even Democrats who have supported the White House’s diplomacy voted in favor of the sanctions. Senior Iranian officials have...

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted on Thursday to extend American sanctions against Iran for a decade, sending to President Obama a measure that supporters said would help ensure that the United States could fully respond if Iran were to violate its obligations under the nuclear agreement. Iranian officials, rankled that the legislation to extend sanctions was being considered — the House overwhelmingly passed it last month — have threatened to respond if the United States goes through with the renewal. The 99-to-0 vote Thursday showed the desire of lawmakers to maintain a tough posture toward Iran amid uncertainty over the...

Between February and March 2016, Australian and French sailors in the Arabian Sea seized small shipsâ€ŠÂ—â€Šor dhowsâ€ŠÂ—â€Šsmuggling weapons, most likely to militants in Somalia and Yemen. These caches aboard the dhows included examples of one particularly rare firearm, the North Korean Type 73 machine gun. In November 2016, independent monitoring group Conflict Armament Research released a report detailing the captured weapons and their likely points of origins and destinations. According to the analysis, the shipments showed links between Iran and armed groups Tehran supports in the Gulf of Aden region.

Hillary Clinton's family charity has accepted contributions from donors accused of violating sanctions against Iran. Her husband has also received a generous payment for a speech hosted by a company with financial interests in Iran. The ties to Iranian business raise questions about Clinton's cautious support of a nuclear deal that would lift sanctions that prevent companies close to her from making money in Iran. For example, a British company whose chairman is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative pleaded guilty to violating sanctions against Iran, the Daily Beast noted Friday..http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/clinton-foundation-took-cash-from-iran-sanctions-violators/article/2568069

But Iran, freed of sanctions, is likely to be the spoiler The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2321 (2016) on November 30th. It condemns the North Korean (DPRK) regime’s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles while its people continue to suffer under inhumane conditions. The resolution strengthens previous UN-imposed sanctions on the DPRK in response to its fifth nuclear test conducted on September 9, 2016. The prior resolutions have failed to slow, much less eliminate, the DPRK’s nuclear program involving the development and testing of both nuclear device and ballistic missile capabilities. As UN Secretary General...

The director of the CIA has warned US President-elect Donald Trump that ending the Iran nuclear deal would be "disastrous" and "the height of folly". In a BBC interview, John Brennan also advised the new president to be wary of Russia's promises, blaming Moscow for much of the suffering in Syria. In his campaign, Mr Trump threatened to scrap the Iran deal and also hinted at working more closely with Russia. Mr Brennan will step down in January after four years leading the CIA. In the first interview by a CIA director with the British media, John Brennan outlined a...

We need a plan if Assad wins 28 November 2016 ? 9:00pm The word “unacceptable” has been used a great deal in the context of the Syrian tragedy. Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons was branded “unacceptable” but there is evidence of their continued use after Western plans to bomb arms dumps were aborted. Then, it was “unacceptable” that President Assad would ever be part of the future of Syria. No peace deal would be countenanced while he remained in power. Yet, with Russian help, he may be on the verge of a military victory. It has been apparent for...

Just about everyone right now wants to know where President-elect Donald Trump stands on Iran, and what fate lies ahead for the nuclear deal and the easing of sanctions that have energy companies’ mouths watering—not the least of them oilfield services giant Schlumberger, which has just hedged its bets that sanctions are history despite heavy rhetoric to the contrary. Schlumberger has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Iranian South Oil Company for the development of oilfields in Iran’s southern Khouzestan province, making it the second Western energy major to return to Iran after the lifting of most sanctions....

WikiLeaks released Monday more than half a million U.S. diplomatic cables from the year 1979. “If any year could be said to be the ‘year zero’ of our modern era, 1979 is it,” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a press release. “In the Middle East, the Iranian revolution, the Saudi Islamic uprising and the Egypt-Israel Camp David Accords led not only to the present regional power dynamic but decisively changed the relationship

Developments following the landmark nuclear deal struck between Tehran and world powers prove that hopes for the recovery of Iran’s economy in a post-JCPOA era is false placed. The economic crisis riddling Iran is a byproduct of the corruption ingrained in the structure of the fundamentalist regime ruling the country and the very foundations it has been established on. And this isn’t something that is going to change as a result of an international treaty or an alteration of the country’s political lineup. In fact, for average Iranians, the changes ensuing the signing of the nuclear deal leave a lot...

Obama is big on making up his own laws and rules. He rules by executive order and he's gotten into the truly illegal habit of unilaterally signing treaties with foreign governments. This is a very basic problem. And in the context of his deal to take in Muslim migrants rejected by Australia, he is being warned once again that his actions are grossly illegal and unconstitutional. ... We’re not even being told the total numbers who will shortly be making their way to our shores, but the Journal notes that two of the camps located on Naru and Manus Islands...

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is concerned over a missing radioactive device from Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor, Saudi-owned Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday. Aside from the security concerns, at the forefront in the GCC’s mind is what impact the radioactive device—wherever it may be today—could have on water supplies. According to the newspaper, the device went missing after the car transporting it was stolen. Thankfully, the vehicle was recovered, but the radioactive nuclear device was not so lucky. The GCC has contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over the incident—both organizations are concerned that Iran’s nuclear program...

This week, intelligence reports submitted to the United Nations Security Council reported that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has allegedly been smuggling weapons on commercial flights to Hezbollah and other terrorists operating in Syria. Weapons smuggling is a violation of two Security Council resolutions. The revelation has renewed focus on a congressional inquiry to re-implement sanctions on Iran that have been obstructed by the Obama administration since October. According to intelligence gathered, Iran was using its Mahan Airline to covertly deliver advanced weaponry to the terrorist forces in the region. The weapons were either delivered directly to Hezbollah via “commercial flights from...

Iraq’s parliament on Saturday voted to accord full legal status to government-sanctioned Shiite militias as a “backup and reserve” force for the military and police and empower them to “deter” security and terror threats facing the country, like the Islamic State group. […] The Shiite militias, most of which are backed by neighboring Shiite Iran, have been bankrolled and equipped by the government since shortly after IS swept across much of northern and western Iraq in 2014. Many of these groups existed long before IS emerged, fighting American troops in major street battles during the U.S. military presence in Iraq...

The underground church movement in Iran is growing despite the regime's crackdown on Christians. Hundreds are being baptized in large ceremonies and people are praising Jesus for saving them from despair and suicide, according to Christian ministries working in the region. Elam Ministries reported earlier this week that more than 200 Iranians and Afghans were baptized in a large service just outside the Islamic Republic of Iran, with eight different Persian-speaking churches attending. The group said that 20 years ago, estimates put the number of believers in Iran at only 2,000–5,000 people, but new statistics are saying there could be...

Grand Ayatollah Moussavi-Ardebili who died today aged 91, was one of the pillars of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. For eight years between 1981-1989, as the head of Iran’s Supreme Court, he was the highest judicial authority in the Islamic Republic during the harshest years of the post-revolution religious dictatorship in Iran. The massacre of political prisoners in Iran in 1988, took place when Mousavi-Ardebili was the head of the Supreme Court. More than 5000 political prisoners, some barely in their teens, who were sentenced to prison sentences and not execution, were summarily re-tried by kangaroo-courts and asked two...

As we begin to wind down to the end of Hassan Rouhani’s term as president of the regime in Iran, it is time to take a look back at the past four years. We all remember how the West joyfully welcomed his election -- read selection -- as a change of gear in Iran aimed at moderation. However, what the world witnessed ever since has been anything but. An atrocious rise in executions, continued public punishments and an escalating trend of oppression has been Rouhani’s report card during his tenure. With a new administration coming into town, Washington must make...

UN Ambassador Danny Danon sent an urgent letter to the Security Council members in which he revealed the smuggling route from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to Hezbollah Iran is smuggling weapons and ammunition to Hezbollah through commercial flights from the Islamic Republic to Lebanon, according to intelligence information revealed by Israel’s UN ambassador to the Security Council, which was cleared for publication on Tuesday. UN Ambassador Danny Danon sent an urgent letter to the Security Council members in which he revealed the smuggling route from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to Hezbollah: “The Iranian Al-Quds Force packs weapons, ammunition and missile technology...

In the modern day, the nation of Iran in the Middle East has become synonymous with Islamic extremism and terrorism. This is because the country is ruled by a religious dictator, the Grand Ayatollah, and is known to support radical organizations that share its uncompromising Muslim ideology. People worry, with good reason, that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons or otherwise strengthen itself. And this condition persists even as a majority of Iran’s population is young, progressive, and, unlike its government, not at all hostile towards the West. Iran wasn’t always like this. It has a long and venerable history as...

For years, many Republicans and conservatives have charged that President Barack Obama was shielding embarrassing intelligence and policy details about Iran in order to support the nuclear deal reached last year. With Donald Trump's upset victory, the party of Lincoln will have an opportunity to declassify and disclose this information. While no decisions have been made, two early picks to Trump's cabinet suggest this is going to happen. Let's start with retired general Michael Flynn, the next president's choice to be national security adviser. Flynn served for two years as Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to...

President-elect Donald Trumpâ€™s selection of Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) to serve as the next CIA director is garnering early praise from senior congressional insiders and foreign policy experts, who told the Washington Free Beacon on Friday that the lawmaker has won plaudits for taking a tough line on Iranian intransigence and investigating the Obama administrationâ€™s secret negotiations with Tehran. Pompeo, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, earned a reputation among his Republican colleagues for his aggressive investigations into Obama administration secrecy surrounding last yearâ€™s nuclear agreement with Iran, multiple sources confirmed.Multiple investigations by the lawmaker unearthed documents showing...

Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton told Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Thursday that he still believes the only real solution for Iran is “regime change.” “The only longterm solution is regime change in Tehran,” said Bolton. “The ayatollahs are the principal threat to international peace and security and the Middle East.” Bolton continued, “Their ouster won’t bring sweetness and light to the region, that’s for sure, but it will eliminate the principal threat.” “I think the people of Iran would long for a new regime. I think we saw that in the summer of 2009 with...

The militia of the fundamentalist Shiite preacher Yasser Habib, whose men train in a suburbs of London, parade in military uniform with flag raising. In the video Al Jazeera below, it is possible to see this parade from 1mn34 to 3mn48. Read More Twitter: @zlando

The Saudi royals are petitioning the Israelis to save them. As the president of the Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee, Salman al-Ansari, says in this Hill blog post, the Saudis are imploring Israel to resuscitate their collapsing economy and defend them against their Iranian Muslim brethren. This should not have come as a surprise, given the Saudi ruling family’s obsession with its security and mistrust of Arab and Muslim regimes, especially the Persians, with whom they share strategic borders and reciprocal religious hatred. Having risen to and maintained their power by ruthless force, the Saudi rulers have mastered...

Bombshell yes, surprising no. Excerpted from The Daily Caller: President Barack Obama twice appointed former Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn to key national security jobs in his administration, including as deputy director of national intelligence and later as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, yet he never once met with Flynn face to face. The general, who spent 33 years in the intelligence field, told The Daily Caller News Foundation he was never called in for a face-to-face meeting with Obama to offer his assessment of ISIS as it rampaged through the Middle East, or during the political meltdown of...

Three Christians in Iran have been sentenced to 80 lashes by a Sharia court after they were found guilty of blasphemy for drinking holy communion wine. Yaser Mosibzadeh, Saheb Fadayee and Mohammed Reza Omidi, also known as Youhan, are due to be flogged in public after they were arrested at a house church gathering in Rasht in May.

… Yukiya Amano of the International Atomic Energy Agency referred to last week’s IAEA finding that Iran overstepped limits on the amount of heavy water it is allowed to possess for the second time since the agreement’s implementation in January. Heavy water is a concern because it is used to cool reactors that can produce substantial amounts of plutonium. That, in turn, can be applied to making the fissile core of nuclear warheads. …

“It is not illegal for Christians to drink alcohol in Iran but under Islamic law, Muslims are forbidden from drinking and it is illegal for Muslims to convert. The trio’s conversion from Islam to Christianity is not recognised by Iranian authorities who subscribe to Sharia law.” A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other...

The underground church movement in Iran is growing despite the Islamic regime's crackdown on Christians. Hundreds are being baptized in large ceremonies and people are praising Jesus for saving them from despair and suicide, according to Christian ministries working in the region. Elam Ministries reported earlier this week that more than 200 Iranians and Afghans were baptized in a large service just outside the Islamic Republic of Iran, with eight different Persian-speaking churches attending. The group said that 20 years ago, estimates put the number of believers in Iran at only 2,000–5,000 people, but new statistics are saying there could...

ItÂ’s generally accepted that it was two U.S. Navy F-14 crews who scored the first aerial victories in the powerful, twin-engine fighterâ€ŠÂ—â€Šwhen on Aug. 19, 1981, a pair of Tomcats from squadron VF-41 shot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22s that had opened fire at them over the Gulf of Sidra. ThatÂ’s the conception. As is often the case in the history of aerial warfare, the truth is significantly different. An Iranian F-14 crew actually scored the TomcatÂ’s first kill.

Iran has 25,000 Shiite fighters in Syria, says ex-Shin Bet chief Likud MK Avi Dichter warns Tehran has not abandoned its nuclear aspirations and seeks to rebuild the Persian empire By Times of Israel staff November 3, 2016, 10:34 pm Iran commands a force of up to 25,000 Shiite Muslim militants fighting in the Syrian civil war, a majority of them from Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to former Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter, who now chairs the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign...

VIENNA, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Iran has exceeded a soft limit on sensitive material set under its nuclear deal with major powers, the U.N. atomic watchdog said on Wednesday, hours after Donald Trump - who has strongly criticized the agreement - won the U.S. presidential election. It is the second time Tehran has surpassed the 130 metric tonne threshold for heavy water, a material used as a moderator in reactors like Iran's unfinished one at Arak, since the deal was put in place in January. It had 130.1 tonnes of the material on Tuesday, the watchdog said. The last time...

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’s nuclear watchdog group, reported on Wednesday that Iran has violated the terms of the nuclear deal again, exceeding a limit of 130 metric tons for heavy water. Iran exceeded the same limit last February. “On 2 November 2016, the director general expressed concerns related to Iran’s stock of heavy water to the vice president of Iran and president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran,” said the confidential IAEA report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters. Iran reportedly told the agency it would begin preparations to ship 5 tons...

Thursday's cordial meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama was a reassuring ritual of democracy. But Obama was far from convincing when he told Trump "we are now going to do everything we can to help you succeed." There are some highly disparate ideas here about what constitutes success, both foreign and domestic. There are also big areas in which one might reasonably wonder if Obama and his team are in a quandary over the prospect of a Trump administration inheriting the internal records of the most transparent administration ever. Take, for instance, the Iran nuclear deal, Obama's...